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Spain take to the big stage

Sat, 12 May 2012 00:00

Spain won two pool matches on day one of the London leg to take their place for the first time in the Cup quarterfinals of an IRB Sevens Series event.

New Zealand were among the four Oceania sides all unbeaten on day one at Twickenham, after coming from behind to beat Argentina. The Kiwis are now just one win away from clinching the 2011/12 IRB Sevens World Series - which will be their 10th title in 13 seasons.

Fiji, Australia and Samoa were the other teams with 100 percent records heading into the Cup quarters, the Samoans defeating hosts England in the final match of the day.

A world record Sevens crowd of 60,050 passed through the Twickenham turnstiles on day one, breaking the previous record of 54,357 set last year and creating a thrilling atmosphere at the final round of the Series.

New Zealand remain on course to lift their 10th World Series title in 13 years, as Gordon Tietjens' side recorded three wins from three on day one at Twickenham.

The reigning World Series champions ended with a 15-10 victory against Argentina, having earlier scored seven tries in their 49-7 victory against Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 hosts Russia.

Tomasi Cama and Frank Halai have both been nominated for the IRB Sevens Player of the Year award, and continued to impress in their victory with two tries each.

Cama added his third of the tournament and captain DJ Forbes scored his 100th career try in their second win of the day, 24-0 against Kenya.

Forbes marked his 50th World Series tournament with victory in Glasgow last weekend, which is ominous for the other 15 participating teams as London sees vice captain Lote Raikabula reach the same landmark.

Argentina also won their opening two matches, narrowly beating Kenya 14-12 in their first match before Facundo Panceyra Garrido and Fernando Luna both scored twice in their 24-14 victory against Russia.

Last weekend's Bowl winners, Russia, enter the same competition in London alongside Kenya, with a late Vladimir Ostroushko try ensuring they finished third in Pool A after a dramatic 21-19 victory against the African side.

The hosts suffered a 14-7 defeat to the hands of Samoa in the day's final match and will face a Cup quarter final with Fiji on day two,

Samoa finished strongly to win the Plate in Glasgow and are just one point behind South Africa in the overall standings. The tournament's first hat-trick, from Tom Iosefo, helped the islanders to a 31-17 victory against USA, having been tied 17-17 half way through the second half.

Iosefo crossed for two more tries in their 26-19 against France to set up the pool decider with England in the day's final match.

Earlier Ben Ryan's home side added a 15-5 victory against USA to an earlier 28-0 win over France in front of an expectant home crowd at Twickenham with Sam Edgerley, Tom Mitchell and Dan Norton all crossing for tries in both matches.

France edged USA 19-15 to determine who finished third in Pool B, with both teams entering the Bowl quarter finals on Sunday.

Fiji maintained their 100 percent record on day one at Twickenham, impressively beating Wales 43-7 in the final Pool C match.

Earlier they beat Zimbabwe 29-0 in their second match thanks to two second half tries from Joeli Lutumailagi and they began proceedings with a 19-5 victory against Spain, with Jimilai Naikadawa scoring the opening try of the tournament.

Spain, who recently qualified to become a core team on the 2012/13 World Series, also reached the Cup quarters - their first ever in the World Series - first beating Wales 27-7 and following that with a 38-0 victory against Zimbabwe thanks to tries from Ignacio Martin and Cesar Sempere.

Wales relied on a late Dan Fish try to secure a 19-12 win against Zimbabwe to ensure they finished third.

Captain Ed Jenkins scored with the last play of the match before Allan Fa'alava'au kicked the decisive conversion to give the young Australian side victory to add to earlier 27-12 and 26-5 wins against Scotland and Portugal respectively.

Paul Treu's South Africa are the only side in the top six of the current standings not to have won a Cup title all season and began the defence of their title impressively, scoring seven tries in a 41-0 victory against Portugal.

Injuries played a part in Paul Treu's selection with the likes of IRB Sevens Player of the Year 2011 Cecil Afrika, Paul Delport and Stephan Dippenaar all unavailable for selection but Jamba Ulengo and Steven Hunt both scored twice before Ulengo added two more tries in a 20-5 victory against Scotland.

The Scots beat Portugal 26-12 in the penultimate match of Pool D, but both teams will contest the Bowl competition on day two.